Interview Skills, Top 20s, and State Schools

[Walter Raleigh]

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I have a question for y'all, especially the adcoms on here: @LizzyM, @Goro, @Catalystik - and the people with a lot of experience in this field, like @gonnif:

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine? Someone with a 10th-percentile GPA and MCAT by Harvard or WashU standards would be average, even above average, at many state MD and almost all DO schools. Thus, is an interview that would be above average at North Dakota State potentially a subpar, even bottom-of-the-barrel performance at Yale?

 

[deleted987519]

Following for laughs

 

[JustAUser]

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine? Someone with a 10th-percentile GPA and MCAT by Harvard or WashU standards would be average, even above average, at many state MD and almost all DO schools. Thus, is an interview that would be above average at North Dakota State potentially a subpar, even bottom-of-the-barrel performance at Yale?

Not again 🙄

 

[deleted972488]

Walter, you said you interviewed at both state schools and a top 20. Were the people you met at the top 20 more personable? My guess would be no.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

@EmbryonalCarcinoma: if, as many here have stated, my interpersonal skills need work, it could be true that I am not capable of assessing the interpersonal skills of individuals very well. It could be that adcom members assess different kinds of interpersonal skills, or that the interpersonal skills of people much better than I at such things blur into a single "personable" or "charming" impression. Someone more talented than I might be better able to make this distinction.

 

[EpilepticRat]

I have a question for y'all, especially the adcoms on here: @LizzyM, @Goro, @Catalystik - and the people with a lot of experience in this field, like @gonnif:

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine? Someone with a 10th-percentile GPA and MCAT by Harvard or WashU standards would be average, even above average, at many state MD and almost all DO schools. Thus, is an interview that would be above average at North Dakota State potentially a subpar, even bottom-of-the-barrel performance at Yale?

 

[907914]

I have a question for y'all, especially the adcoms on here: @LizzyM, @Goro, @Catalystik - and the people with a lot of experience in this field, like @gonnif:

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine? Someone with a 10th-percentile GPA and MCAT by Harvard or WashU standards would be average, even above average, at many state MD and almost all DO schools. Thus, is an interview that would be above average at North Dakota State potentially a subpar, even bottom-of-the-barrel performance at Yale?

I mean, if you get rejected from both of them post-interview then why does it matter how the other people performed?


The bell curve for stats is disconnected from the bell curve for personalities. There are some good stats with good personability. There are some bad with bad. Some good with bad. And some bad with good. Beingbook smart does not mean you are people smart. Being people smart does not mean you are book smart. And it takes a special kind of person to be bad at both.

 

[EpilepticRat]

@EmbryonalCarcinoma: if, as many here have stated, my interpersonal skills need work, it could be true that I am not capable of assessing the interpersonal skills of individuals very well. It could be that adcom members assess different kinds of interpersonal skills, or that the interpersonal skills of people much better than I at such things blur into a single "personable" or "charming" impression. Someone more talented than I might be better able to make this distinction.

Have you considered asking someone for a mock interview? I think this might be the best course of action for you as it'll elucidate what the issue is for you. Your premed advisor or a trusted faculty member would be a good place to start

 

[gonnif]

I have a question for y'all, especially the adcoms on here: @LizzyM, @Goro, @Catalystik - and the people with a lot of experience in this field, like @gonnif:

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine? Someone with a 10th-percentile GPA and MCAT by Harvard or WashU standards would be average, even above average, at many state MD and almost all DO schools. Thus, is an interview that would be above average at North Dakota State potentially a subpar, even bottom-of-the-barrel performance at Yale?

No, idiots at interviews go across all stats. I would actually argue that lower stat interviewees who get accepted are better at interpersonal and communication skills than higher stat applicants. They have to be in order to be accepted. In short, higher stat applicant get accepted despite, and not because of, interview skills. So an average interviewee at North Dakota State and especially WVSOM, would make someone from Yale Harvard look like a pompous ass or babbling fool, but I repeat myself

 

[Catalystik]

I have a question for y'all, especially the adcoms on here: @LizzyM, @Goro, @Catalystik - and the people with a lot of experience in this field, like @gonnif:

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine? Someone with a 10th-percentile GPA and MCAT by Harvard or WashU standards would be average, even above average, at many state MD and almost all DO schools. Thus, is an interview that would be above average at North Dakota State potentially a subpar, even bottom-of-the-barrel performance at Yale?

 

[Toutie]

my interpersonal skills need work

That's the understatement of the year.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Have you considered asking someone for a mock interview? I think this might be the best course of action for you as it'll elucidate what the issue is for you. Your premed advisor or a trusted faculty member would be a good place to start

I had two mock interviews, both with faculty at a local DO school. The first time, my performance was rated as average; the second time, the interviewer rated me slightly above average!

 

[beattheprocess]

Are the interview skills of top-20 students, like their GPAs and MCATs, head and shoulders above those of matriculants at schools like North Dakota State or DO schools like West Virginia College of Medicine?

lol.

If anything I'd expect them to be worse. Goro also says "4.0 automatons are a dime in a dozen" on here often enough that I remember it, so there's that.

 

[gyngyn]

I had two mock interviews, both with faculty at a local DO school. The first time, my performance was rated as average; the second time, the interviewer rated me slightly above average!

These are not good.

 

[Momof]

I had two mock interviews, both with faculty at a local DO school. The first time, my performance was rated as average; the second time, the interviewer rated me slightly above average!

I think your response is very telling here. Surely they didn’t RATE you and kick you out of the office. What kind of feedback did they provide? Which answers did they like? Did they feel you could expand on certain things? Did you have a meaningful conversation with them? Did they mention your posture and tone? Your interviewer is the person who advocates for your seat in the class - if they don’t feel you will be a good addition to the cohort, your stellar MCAT loses any value.

A mock interview is an opportunity for growth and development.

 

[gonnif]

I had two mock interviews, both with faculty at a local DO school. The first time, my performance was rated as average; the second time, the interviewer rated me slightly above average!

More likely mocked at interviews

 

[beattheprocess]

Yep.... That's the end of this thread

 

[peanuttbuttah]

I'd like to think Walt is actually a Mayo ortho resident who just needs some memes in his life.

 

[Cheeezcake]

Just discovered Walt.. he's pretty juiced up and idk but I'm loving it

 

[deleted987519]

Just discovered Walt.. he's pretty juiced up and idk but I'm loving it

I want Walt to get in more than I want to get in tbh

 

[Cheeezcake]

I want Walt to get in more than I want to get in tbh

Honestly, #WaltGang

 

[ThrowawayShmoaway]

Done, sorry guys! Was just curious, sorry about that!

 

[Cheeezcake]

Done, sorry guys! Was just curious, sorry about that!

no worries, just wanna save you from the tomatoes haha

 

[Seihai]

I was wondering what was happening in this thread because I have Walter blocked, and it looks really quite funny when you look at it without his posts and responses.

 

[Engrailed]

I imagine him as a pretty socially unaware individual. Or is just messing with us. If the former, we should just leave him alone

 

[Luckyone1023]

OP, it should be obvious to you that top 20 interviewees are particularly adept at captivating as they can regale their inquisitors with amusing anecdotes about standing on the olympic medal podium, or how it felt to be notified of their Nobel prize nomination

 

[deleted976595]

OP, it should be obvious to you that top 20 interviewees are particularly adept at captivating as they can regale their inquisitors with amusing anecdotes about standing on the olympic medal podium, or how it felt to be notified of their Nobel prize nomination

Or they can talk about the great feeling of achieving their 70th first author publication

 

[EpilepticRat]

Haha it's true, if HMS students were the way he envisions them, I think they'd be better candidates for canonization than medicine

 

[gonnif]

Haha it's true, if HMS students were the way he envisions them, I think they'd be better candidates for canonization than medicine

Amen to that brother

 

[Walter Raleigh]

These are not good.

Are you implying that the mock interviewer wasn't very good at assessing my interview performance, or that I need to pick a different mock interviewer? The interviewer stated both times that my performance was okay, even good, although I could expand more on the differences between the DO approach and the MD approach, and on why I wanted to go into medicine.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

OP, it should be obvious to you that top 20 interviewees are particularly adept at captivating as they can regale their inquisitors with amusing anecdotes about standing on the olympic medal podium, or how it felt to be notified of their Nobel prize nomination

Perhaps! And others regale their interviewers with tales of military service in Africa as a Green Beret, or starting international nonprofits, or being FBI agents...

 

[deleted972488]

Perhaps! And others regale their interviewers with tales of military service in Africa as a Green Beret, or starting international nonprofits, or being FBI agents...

Luckyone's comment was satirical. Is yours?

 

[907914]

Luckyone's comment was satirical. Is yours?

You DON’T have a Nobel prize nomination or even Olympic bronze by the age of 2X? NEWB.

 

[peanuttbuttah]

You DON’T have a Nobel prize nomination or even Olympic bronze by the age of 2X? NEWB.

Seriously, it's like we're the only Navy SEALs who moonlight as olympic astronauts and Stanford MBA professors on SDN... bunch of slackers on this site

 

[peanuttbuttah]

lol That is all you have accomplished? Step up your game, son. Gotta become a Space Force WALRUS, and apply for that Cambridge online fellowship in tactical underwater Entrepreneurship. Get woke.

I mean if we're just humblebragging CVs here, I wrote the screenplay for Erin Brockovich, opened for Eric Clapton on his world tour, caught Bin Laden, and then hiked to Tibet to teach a meditation seminar with the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, this was all before college so it's not on my primary

 

[907914]

I mean if we're just humblebragging CVs here, I wrote the screenplay for Erin Brockovich, opened for Eric Clapton on his world tour, caught Bin Laden, and then hiked to Tibet to teach a meditation seminar with the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, this was all before college so it's not on my primary

It is unfortunate our activities from before college don’t count because I take great pride in orchestrating the construction of the pyramids at Giza and teaching Zues about static electricity.

 

[gyngyn]

...and closed.